Xbox celebrates record year

Xbox 360 was the best-selling gaming console in the market during the competitive Christmas period and fourth quarter of 2010, with the Xbox division experiencing its biggest year on record in New Zealand.

Xbox 360 bucked the trend in a market where total console sales declined year on year, showing 14 per cent increase in total sales from the previous year. The figures reinforce Xbox 360 as the number one next-generation console in New Zealand.

The successful launch of Kinect for Xbox 360, Microsoft’s revolutionary controller-free entertainment accessory, resulted in the impressive increase of Xbox 360 consoles sales, growing 31 per cent for the fourth quarter 2010 and 65 per cent for Christmas following the launch of Kinect in November, compared to the previous equivalent periods.

With Microsoft selling more than eight million units of Kinect for Xbox 360 globally in the first 60 days of release, David McLean, General Manager of Xbox Australia and New Zealand, says he is pleased by the results.

“The festive period is always the key indicator of whether or not you have connected with consumers and Christmas 2010 was a milestone year for Xbox,” McLean says.

“Christmas sales are a telling time for future trends and gauging what’s popular amongst consumers. With Kinect we have changed the landscape of the gaming and entertainment industry. We have opened gaming to a new audience and essentially created a new genre in controller-free entertainment.”

With yearly results also revealing a 37 per cent increase in Xbox LIVE subscribers in New Zealand and a 75 per cent increase in the number of hours spent on Xbox LIVE, totalling 30 million hours*, McLean believes the direction of the industry is moving towards an integrated entertainment experience for consumers.

“With Kinect for Xbox 360, social networking, movies via Zune and a great line-up of blockbuster games, Xbox 360 is leading New Zealand families in to an era where there is one central point for all the family’s entertainment experience in the home,” says McLean.